Product Review

DroboPro

One exciting aspect of being a computer network consultant is the opportunity to install new hardware for a client. It’s like Christmas when we arrive on site and find an unopened box waiting for us! Carefully cutting open the packaging, the aroma of brand new electronic devices gently wafts into the air, and our eyes open wide to behold the shiny new tech toy.

Such was the case last week when we set to work implementing a new mass storage device for one of our long-time clients. Clearing a workspace near the server rack, I flipped open the lid of the first box, revealing a jet black interior, black packing foam, and a rectangular device protected by a soft cloth bag with one word printed on it: Drobo. This product was soon to become a 6TB data storage device. Six terabytes! The design quality of the DroboPro completely surpassed our expectations, making setup very simple and delivering massive data storage capabilities in a matter of minutes, all the while, discreetly sporting its modestly sleek style. The DroboPro demands a product review!

Data Robotics Inc. has really struck a beautiful harmony between expandability, data security, and ease of use for the customer. The DroboPro is a mass storage array specifically designed for business use. Although our specific application required no more than 6TB, you can create up to 16TB worth of storage across the Drobo’s 8 drive bays. As individual hard drive capacities grow, the unit will be able to expand even beyond 16TB! Expansion is achieved by simply adding or replacing drives. The DroboPro touts a revolutionary technology called “BeyondRAID” that ensures data security and makes the inclusion of hard drives easy. The DroboPro comes with the hardware-level configuration already finished so that the customer simply has to attach it to their system and install basic drivers and utilities.

We began our installation by attaching the rack mount shelf to the Drobo, then securing it in the rack. The clean aesthetics of the Drobo offer a dose of immediate satisfaction when put in place. Then we installed five 1.5TB SATA hard drives by simply sliding them into the open drive bays. With the magnetically secured front panel attached, the DroboPro uses lights to indicate power state and hard drive condition. Next, we installed the software provided with the unit which includes drivers and a simple utility program that allows you to configure storage allocations, change settings, specify volume names, etc. The software is very easy to use. Then it was time to attach the DroboPro to the network. We decided to use iSCSI (utilizes Gigabit Ethernet), but the Drobo can also transmit data via Hi-Speed USB 2.0 or Firewire 800. Connecting the DroboPro to the secondary network interface card on the main server initiated the setup wizard which helped us create storage volumes. In a matter of minutes, we had 3 new logical partitions (2TB each) ready to be formatted as standard hard drives on a Windows system. Another great feature of the DroboPro is that it is compatible with any kind of computer network; Windows, Mac, Linux, VMware, etc. This particular network uses components of all of the afore mentioned platforms.

The only challenge we faced was migrating the Exchange Database to the DroboPro. In order for the database to initialize properly after a server reboot, the volume had to be added to the iSCSI service’s binding list. This ensures that Windows does not consider the iSCSI service fully started until connections are restored to all volumes on the binding list, which is important since Microsoft Exchange depends on the database now located on the DroboPro. More Detailed instructions on this procedure can be found here: http://www.zdnetasia.com/techguide/storage/0,39045058,62030894,00.htm

With the iSCSI service configured properly, our DroboPro installation was complete! This product offers a ton of storage capacity, redundant data security, an intuitive user interface, and all for a reasonable price. We recommend you visit their website and consider Drobo for your network storage solution.

http://www.drobo.com/

- Justin Colby

Technology Consultant